Carly Simon

One of the top singer-songwriters of the 1970s and 1980s, Carly Simon combined an earthy sensuality with a soaring voice and lyrical ruminations on romance and happiness with such hits as "Anticipation," "You're So Vain," "You Belong to Me" and "Nobody Does it Better." Frequently mentioned in the same breath with other introspective female musicians as Joni Mitchell and Carol King, Simon's music was as hopeful about love as it was cautious, a position she took in real life as well through several high-profile relationships with stars like Warren Beatty. She settled down in 1972 with singer James Taylor, but by the end of the decade, both her marriage and career were in a tailspin. After divorcing Taylor in 1983, she rebounded in the late 1980s with the album Coming Around Again and the song "Let the Rivers Run" from the movie "Working Girl" (1988), which earned her an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe. Simon worked feverishly throughout the 1990s until a bout with breast cancer in 1997 put a halt to her schedule. She made tentative inroads back into music in the new millennium, while still enjoying the fruits of her earlier hits, which remained anthems for generations of men and women.